22 November 2016 – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) has launched National Holodomor Awareness Week from 21-27 November 2016.

In 1932-33, in an attempt to silence the Ukrainian nation and quell its aspirations for independence, Stalin’s totalitarian regime sentenced millions of Ukrainians to death by starvation.

Despite the decades-long efforts by communist authorities, and attempts by other contemporary forces to disinform and erase from human memory the horrific experiences of the Holodomor, the world today knows the facts about this crime.

Archival documents, scholarly research and testimonies by survivors have contributed to recognition of the Holodomor as aGenocide of the Ukrainian nation and to remembrance of the countless victims by governments and international institutions.

Rising yesterday in Canada’s House of Commons, Member of Parliament BorysWrzesnewskyj stated, “84 years ago, the horror of the Holodomor, the genocide of Ukraine’s rural population, began. Stalin decreed food illegal for Ukrainian farmers. The Kremlin’s red brigade scoured the countryside confiscating grain and livestock. Farmers who were caught hiding food, even as little as five stalks of wheat, were shot on site. Ukraine’s lush countryside was transformed into a denuded and silent darkness as people ate grasses and anything living. The eerie silence that engulfed villages was only broken by the sound of death wagons transporting starvation-bloated bodies.”

On Saturday, 27 November 2016, International Holodomor Memorial Day and National Holodomor Memorial Day, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress calls upon all Canadians to:

Remember the victims of the Holodomor with a moment of silence at 19:32 local time;

Light candles of remembrance in homes;

participate in local commemorative events and memorial services;

Event directory available on our webpage. Please contact us if you do not see a specific Holodomor community event listed;

Participate in our online social media campaign, using the hashtags #Holodomor, #EmptyHarvest, and #ShareTheStory;

May the memory of the victims of the Holodomor – 1932-33 Famine Genocide remain eternal.